August 18, 2008

  USA in Gold Medal Position in Laser Radial

          American Anna Tunnicliffe has a seven-point lead going into Tuesday's medal race at the Olympic Games.  Tunnicliffe's rise has been great fun to watch over the past several years.  Anna was born in England, but her family moved to the Midwest in the United States.  She grew up sailing at the North Cape YC in Michigan.  After graduating from high school, she enrolled at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va.  It was at ODU that she first broke into the national sailing scene.  In an interview I did with her in January 2007, she said, "before college I wasn't anybody in sailing." Now she is on the verge of being a very special someone.

             The change came at ODU by working with top college sailing coach Mitch Brindley. Outside of sailing she was very athletic and competed in track and swimming.  Her physical condition has always been paramount to her success.  Last summer, I was walking home from a regatta in Newport, R.I.  Out of the shadows this slender woman came racing by and she almost knocked me over.  It was Anna out for a run.  We talked a little at the time and she told me how important being in good shape was in her quest to reach the games. It is something she has been working on for a long time.

             In college, Anna helped ODU win four national titles.  In her senior year she became the A Division skipper for the team. This is rare for a female.  No problem, for Anna, she was named a first team All American.  And she was also named Female College Sailor of the Year in her senior year.  The National Championships were on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas, in 2005.  I covered the event for ESPN.  We put cameras and microphones on board the small 420s being raced.  Later in the edit suite, I became quite intrigued by Anna's racing style. She was very smooth.  Andrew Campbell was also sailing against her. Andrew is sailing the Laser here in Qingdao, and was racing for Georgetown in the nationals that year.  Both were outstanding.  I noted then, to keep an eye on them.

             Getting to the Games was not easy for Anna, there was a tough field of American sailors to defeat, most notably Paige Railey, from Florida.  Railey's brother, Zach, won the silver medal yesterday in the Finn class. The battle between Paige and Anna at the trials was epic. I was there filming that regatta too.  Most of the races were sailed in strong winds.  This is where Anna excelled, thanks to her physical training.  She hasn't let up, and now she could become the first American female sailor to win a gold medal in sailing in twenty years.  Mitch Brindley is in Qingdao lending support.  Going into the medal race, she holds a seven-point lead over Gintare Volungeviciute of Lithuania, and 11 points over Lijia Lu of China.  Anna probably is not aware of it, but all sailors across America will be riding with her tomorrow.  And, most importantly, many young sailors are being inspired by Anna's feat. It all comes down to one big 40-minute race. NBCOlympics.com will carry the race live starting at 1am ET (10pm Pacific time).